#Positivity | National High School Graduation Rate Highest Since 1976

A study released this past Tuesday by the Education Department revealed that the high school graduation rate is the highest it has been in thirty-five years, reportsThe Wall Street Journal. Data from the study showed that in 2010, 78.2 percent of high school students received their diploma in four years. This is actually a 2.7 percent increase from the previous year.

According to the Associated Press, education officials believe that the upward swing in graduation rates is reflective of the competition for new jobs and our nation’s suffering economy. The national dropout rate that year was a mere 3 percent. While rates are up, more than one-fifth of students were still unable to graduate in four years. Many of those who were unable to complete their curriculum in four years remained in school for an additional two or more years to finish.

“If you drop out of high school, how many good jobs are there out there for you? None. That wasn’t true 10 or 15 years ago,” Arne Ducan, Education Secretary expressed to the Associated Press.

“When I grew up on the South Side of Chicago it wasn’t great, but I had lots of friends who dropped out and they could go work in the stockyards or steel mills and they could buy a home, support a family, do OK.”